Get Motivated in 10 Surefire Ways

Posted Jun 15 2009 by Celes

Motivation is a fuel for living.

When we don’t feel motivated, things feel so… dead. Have you ever found yourself in a rut towards life? You see things in shades of gray, rather than in colors. Without motivation, it’s only a matter of time before you fall into a state of apathy and become a sleepwalker of life. It’s a very blank, empty state to be in. Actions becomes empty and forced – there is no energy behind what you do.

When you are unmotivated, it means you have lost connection with your inner source, your higher self or inner muse – whichever name you refer to it by. An analogy would be like trying to drive a car that is out of petrol. You are just left hanging dry in the middle of an endless road called life and there is nothing else you can do. It can be disheartening.

Try observing the people around you the next time you are at work, commuting, buying food or just out in a public area. See if you can discern between the people who are motivated and the people who aren’t. The latter comes across as dead zombies. Their eyes lack sparkle, they drag their feet when they walk and their faces look like they are sucked out of life. They may be physically in action, but there’s no one home.

I’m not sure about you, but I have been in a void state before and it’s not particularly enjoyable. I would very much rather be up, running and enjoying life to its fullest, as opposed to feeling vacant about it.

Just like you can get more fuel for your car by heading to the nearest petrol station, you can refill your motivation. For the rest of the article, I will be sharing with you some methods on how to get motivated.

How To Get Motivated

1. Identify what drives you.

All inspiration flows from a core – a source within you. This source represents the one thing that drives you in life. At the highest level, this is synonymous with your life purpose. Some people call it their passion. When you are connected with your inner source, you basically have access to the never ending supply of fuel that you need. When you are most connected with your source, you achieve a state of ‘flow’ where everything comes through automatically. While it takes practice to reach this state, it can be done.

What are you here for? What do you feel most passionate about? What is the one thing that drives you? Bear in mind that this is what you want, and not what others want you to do (i.e. imposed purposes). There might be other things which drive you, but they usually come through as some variant of your primary driver.

For example, one of the times I get inspired is when I witness the success of others. If I think about what made me feel inspired, it is because (1) I love seeing others overcome challenges to be their best self (2) It reminds me to do the same for myself. The answers revolve around the theme of growth, which is essentially what my life purpose is about. Having found my life purpose/passion, it is the single locus that drives me every day. As I’ve mentioned in various other posts on my site, I can’t imagine doing anything else. This is the best thing I can ever dream of doing.

If you haven’t found the one thing that drives you, check out the comprehensive 7-part Discover Your Real Purpose series. In part-6, you will find an exercise to Discover Your Purpose. Many readers have discovered their purpose from the exercise and gone on to pursue it with great passion afterward.

2. Stop doing things you feel dead towards.

This applies to anything you feel dead about. It may be this particular acquaintance whom you don’t really like but feel compelled to hang out with. It may be towards your job which you feel passionless about, which is one of the most common complaints I hear from people around me.

If you feel dead towards something, then stop doing it. No one is forcing you to remain in your current situation. Sure, there may be X Y Z reasons that keep you there, but you can always create an action plan to deal with them if you are really persistent enough. You are the CEO of your life and you are the one who makes the call on the decisions in your life. As long as you keep yourself stuck with things you feel dead towards, you will forever be held back by them.

When I realized I had completely lost the passion for my brand management job last year, I submitted my resignation letter to pursue my real passion. Many people reacted in shock, discouragement or even disapproval in rare cases, but my career is ultimately what I have to live with, not them. If I was feeling dead about my career, it was up to me to make the call to do something I love, rather than slough through it against my desires. While it meant loss of an income in the meantime, I knew I can always earn money back in my new personal development career. Earning money isn’t exclusive to my previous work.

What are some of the things you are doing which you feel dead towards? Why are you doing them? How can you stop doing them? Remember, you are the owner of your life and you have a choice over everything you do. If you feel dead towards something, then find ways where you don’t need to do it.

3. Soak yourself in motivational materials.

Surround yourself in inspirational materials, such as self help books, podcasts (Philosopher’s Notes is a great podcast resource – it condenses the wisdom of self help books into short podcasts), inspirational stories of people (check out the Rags to Riches story of Sylvester Stallone), inspirational speeches (Steve Job’s famous Standford Commencement Speech, Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture), motivational quotes (here’s 101 Inspiring Quotes of All Time. Separately, you can also subscribe to this site to get a daily motivational quote delivered to your email every day), videos (The Way to Happiness), personal development blogs, shows (Oprah’s show, Tyra Bank’s talk show) etc.

For books, if you are not quite sure where to start, here’s some to get you moving: Ask and It Is Given (Esther and Jerry Hicks), Overachievement (John Eliot), Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (T. Harv Eker) and The Secret (Rhonda Byrne).

Motivational materials can include music as well. While the music which immediately comes to mind would be those of Enya, New Age, Meditation tracks, Paraliminals, it can be other music too, such as pop, R&B, ballads, rock. As long as the music motivates you, it can be regarded as an motivational source.

Every morning, I set aside some time to check out personal development sites and various related resources. My mp3 player is packed with self help podcasts which I sometimes listen to when I’m exercising. My room is fortified with inspirational quotes, affirmations and objects. These help to sustain me in a high state of consciousness.

4. Recharge your batteries.

As mentioned earlier, when you are in an unmotivated state, it means your fuel has run dry. That means it’s time to recharge your batteries.

Stop doing whatever you are doing and take a breather. In fact, get away from your computer for a while. Engage yourself in things that interest you. Go take a walk in the park, hang out with friends, listen to music, rest, watch a movie, etc. What are some of your hobbies? Go do them. Use this time to recharge yourself. Some of my best ideas hit me when I’m relaxing and doing something else that isn’t work.

One of the things you can consider to recharge your batteries is meditation. When you meditate, your mind enters the alpha state, where ideas from your subconsciousness or your source start to seep in. You will find yourself getting ideas which don’t emerge when you are actively using your conscious mind. It’s widely known that Thomas Edison and Einstein get their best ideas from connecting with their subconsciousness. Frequent mediation will enable you to enter this state effortlessly. For more information, read 10 Reasons You Should Meditate and How To Meditate in 5 Steps.

5. Set goals that motivate you.

Having goals puts you in a motivated state because it crystallizes possible outcomes which you can achieve if you work towards them. The goals should represent outcomes that you desire, not what other people desire. More on that in Principle #3: Understand Your Motivations in How To Establish Goals.

Better yet, consider setting BHAGs – Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goals. In other words, goals on steroids! BHAGs are goals which are much bigger and more challenging. BHAGs inspire because they connect us to our real dreams and open us to possibilities of what we are really capable of. If I have a goal that is easy to achieve, I don’t get very motivated to work on it. On the other hand, a goal that is challenging and somewhat impossible to achieve makes me want to go all out to get it. On how to set BHAGs, read Principle #5: Plan for BHAGs in How To Establish Goals.

(If you don’t believe in setting goals, read 6 Important Reasons Why You Should Set Goals.)

6. Attach a deadline with your goals.

Your goals should come with deadlines so that you will be spurred into action. (Read Principle #7: Make Them Measurable in How To Establish Goals) I commonly hear people say that they don’t want to set deadlines as they don’t want to stress themselves into achieving the goals. If you find yourself overwhelmed by deadlines, it just means (1) You need to change the way you handle pressure. Stress is a reaction inside you and not something that is inherent in the task. Instead of shrinking in the face of pressure, learn how to expand yourself so you become bigger than your problems. (2) You are overattached to outcomes. The deadlines for your goals are meant to be reference points so you can achieve them. You should strive to achieve them, but not beat yourself to a pulp if you don’t achieve it.

7. Surround yourself with competition.

One of the best ways to motivate yourself into action is to create competition. Trying to lose weight? Get friends with similar goals to join in and see who can reach the goal the fastest. Want to grow your business? Benchmark yourself with some of the top people in the industry. When you are acting in your lone man’s island, it’s easy to descend into a mode of stagnancy. However, if you are constantly in the face of competition, you will be triggered into doing better than your best all the time.

This is why the best companies in a particular industry are clustered in the same area – Milan is well known as the fashion capital, Silicon Valley for technology, Taiwan for small medium entreprises, and so on. The intense competition in the area makes for fastest possible growth.

8. Hang out with motivated people.

You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Have you found that when you are around positive people, you become more positive afterward, even when you are by yourself? Similarly, when you hang around motivated people, their vibes will rub off you naturally too. It’s kind of like diffusion. You will get motivated and be triggered to take action. When I’m around higher consciousness people, I consequently get more ideas and feel more stirred than usual to act on my goals.

9. Look back at your past successes.

Make a list of all the things you have achieved in the past. What have you done before that you are proud of? What were some of the times when you performed better than you expected? When were the times when you were praised or complimented for something? How were you feeling then? How can you tap into those emotions for what you are doing now?

10. Remind yourself of things you are grateful for.

What are the things you are grateful for in your life? Your family? Your friends? Your health? Your life? What are the things that make you happy to be alive and motivate you to live?

There are so many things I’m grateful for that the list is endless. I love being alive. I love living my passion, exercising, nightfall, the morning air, sunrises, my friends, my room, my elmo, being a raw vegan, and many, many more. Being aware of these inspires me live life to the fullest.

Try listing down all the things that you feel grateful for, write them down in a document or sheet of paper and have that with you so you can refer to it whenever you feel unmotivated.

Try the methods above and see if they work in getting you motivated